Gas tank in Dorchester gets facelift

Monday

Fans of Corita Kent's famous rainbow design shouldn't fret if they notice workers on the side of the liquefied natural gas tank in Dorchester this week.

Workers from Burlington firm DGI-Invisuals will be affixing a giant decal with National Grid's logo over the KeySpan logo that has marked the tank for about seven years. National Grid, which completed its acquisition of KeySpan last month, expects to phase out the KeySpan brand by April 1 of next year.

Company spokeswoman Carmen Fields said Kent's 150-foot-tall multi-hued mural - which the company describes as the largest copyrighted piece of art in the world - will remain untouched.

At some point, London-based National Grid will have its logo painted on the side of the gas tank, Fields said. Applying a decal made up of 100 sections, each covering 32 square feet, was easier to do for the short-term, she said.

"We couldn't (paint) it as efficiently," Fields said. "(But) we wanted to get something to indicate that KeySpan is now part of National Grid."

Work crews began power-washing the side of the tank on Monday, Fields said. The project could take seven to 10 days to complete. National Grid officials are warning commuters about the work because they don't want drivers to be distracted as they pass the tank.

The LNG tank, a recognizable part of many South Shore motorists' daily commutes and a fixture on traffic reports, is one of the largest KeySpan tanks in New England. It is slightly larger than similar KeySpan tanks in Lynn and Salem, but smaller than one in Providence.

Boston Gas Co., a predecessor to KeySpan, initially commissioned the artwork in 1971. The original tank was torn down in 1992, and the artwork was re-created on an adjacent tank - the one that stands today.

"Corita Kent's artwork is a cherished icon and a Boston landmark visible to everyone traveling on the Southeast Expressway," Nick Stavropoulos, an executive president at National Grid, said in a prepared statement. "As KeySpan transitions to National Grid, we are pleased to preserve her work."

Gas company officials continue to deny that the piece's blue stripe was intentionally painted by Kent, who was a political activist as well as an artist, to resemble former Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh.

"We have no indication that Ms. Kint was seeking to put any likeness of anyone on there," Fields said. "It's a rainbow, and that's that."

Jon Chesto of The Patriot Ledger (Quincy, Mass.) may be reached at jchesto@ledger.com.